Best Of The Week's Blogs

"We are in a heap of hurt We could lay off people in every department  public works, police and fire  and that still wouldn't do a whole lot."

--Bill Hoffman, Allentown controller, on the city's need to take action to avoid an anticipated $9 million budget deficit.

Gas up, grab a beer, and get behind wheel?

The state Supreme Court has ruled that Altoona-based, gas-and-sip chain, Sheetz cannot sell take-out beer, the Associated Press has reported.

In an interesting twist, the 5-1 ruling by the high court does allow for some beer to be consumed on-premises while customers plow through their 12-inch MTO subs with extra hot peppers and a bag of chips.

Sheetz general counsel Mike Cortez said the ruling was disappointing, and that after reviewing the decision the company expects either to apply for a new license from the state or simply begin allowing people to drink inside the store.

Sheetz has been selling beer at a partitioned-off fast-food restaurant section of its store.

"I can tell you that our customers very much enjoyed the opportunity to buy beer at that location -- and they've done so," Cortez said.

Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board spokesman Nick Hays said the ruling was being reviewed to assess its impact.

We have said it before, and we will say it again, this ruling strikes us as massively counterintuitive. Because, instead of allowing people to buy take-out beer, the high court is effectively requiring people to buy their suds at the gas station, guzzle it there, and then get back behind the wheel and (in some cases) drive on interstate highways.

But we're not legal scholars or anything.

-- John L. Micek

http://blogs.mcall.com/captiol_ideas/

Ratings up with Jon & Kate on the rocks

Just when you thought it couldn't get more dysfunctional in the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" household.

The cover of In Touch magazine has four photos of Kate Gosselin, including two that reportedly show her hitting daughter Leah.

Photographers camped outside the family's Berks County home snapped the images.

Supposedly, Leah was blowing a whistle outside with the other children. When Kate told her to stop, she didn't listen so Kate spanked her and then walked away drinking coffee, according to the magazine.

The Gosselins have been on tabloid covers for weeks as their relationship has gone south.

Jon and Kate spent their 10th anniversary apart last week.

June 12 was the reality TV couple's anniversary and they spent the time apart.

Kate was seen in front of their Wernersville manse setting up a barbecue and a new bounce playhouse for the kids.

Taping was occurring at the time.

Jon hasn't been seen since early June, when he returned from picking up the family dogs from a kennel in Delaware.

The gossip has garnered incredible viewership for the fifth season of the TLC reality show.

The season premier drew 9.8 million viewers.

-- Mike Hirsch and Kelly Federico

http://blogs.mcall.com/tvwatchers/

Kendrick's back in the LV after 2 innings

After lots of softball and some NASCAR racing in recent weeks, I got to mix in an IronPigs baseball game as a pinch-hitter last Sunday.

Beautiful day at the ballpark, nice win for the IronPigs.

"Beautiful" and "nice" were not how I'd describe the mood of Kyle Kendrick as the team gathered its belongings for the trip to Durham, however.

He got called up to the Phillies, pitched two innings -- one perfect, one bad -- in June 12's extra-inning loss to Boston and got sent back "up" to Lehigh Valley geographically, but "down" in terms of the Phillies baseball hierarchy the next day.

Kendrick seemed to be ticked at what went on, but didn't want to say anything that would infuriate management.

"I was just disappointed by how I pitched," he said. "No, they don't tell you anything [when they make these decisions]. It was nice to get back up there and get a chance, and now I have to come back here and work on what I need to work on in my next start."

He said. "You just go forward. It was nice to get back up there, but one day was nothing special."

As for his outing against the Red Sox, not exactly the easiest team to face in your big-league return, Kendrick said: "The first inning was good, the second was horrible. Nothing more needs to be said about it."